Something next to normal, that's the thing I'd like to try

Close enough to normal to get by

Surfacing just briefly...

Ugh, work has been insanely busy, and will continue to be so next week. BUT THEN IT'S OVER AND I CAN SLEEP. Sorry if I missed anything important. Just one... more... week...

Links:

* This AV Club article about TV cancellations becoming a thing of the past is interesting, particularly given the common assumption that shows get axed a lot quicker now than they did in the days of, say, Buffy or Seinfeld, which were given ~time to develop into the great shows they'd become. But the article also neglects the primary driver of shows like Community or Parks & Recreation getting five or six seasons, despite low ratings - namely, with the exception of CBS, EVERYTHING is getting terrible ratings compared to the days when there were only three or four networks competing against one another. Now they're competing with AMC and FX, with HBO and Showtime, with Netflix and Amazon, all of whom have popularized "prestige" shows, where it's more important for a show to be good than for it to get good ratings.

The standard for renewal is lower because it has to be, or networks would be forced to cancel everything. Maybe there's a long-term gain from picking up binge-watching viewers, but in the current environment, low-rated shows that get critical acclaim give networks an excuse to keep renewing them. At least those shows are generating buzz, whereas low-rated crap gets you nothing.

Aww, thanks! And yeah, I grew up reading those books, and just took it at face value that, you know, that's what happened. Learning that actually Rose had a huge influence on the narrative and made significant changes, often to suit her political beliefs (most of which I'd disagree with), was one of those "everything you think you know is wrong!" kind of moments. It's very weird to think back on it now.

Yeah, I don't know why I never really thought about it, because OF COURSE there must be a ton of double/stand-in work to shoot those scenes, but I didn't think of it as being that much of a role. (I think part of my brain is just convinced that there are actually seven Tatiana Maslanys who play the different roles.) So it was cool to find out about the other person in those scenes.